The Arkansaw traveler., 1887-10-15

ately senSlDIe or another SHOCK UO uef composure, which found vent in swift blush.
 They were obliged to wait few moments in the hall for the elevator. When it finally descended, there stepped in after Miss Pitkins and her. self, man whom Elinos felt, without a glance, to be the disturber of her nerves.
 As he stood before her, she chanced to see one of his cuff buttons on which in raised letters of gold, she read the initials of J. A. E. Strangely famil- jar these letters seemed to Elinos, yet she could not remember in what con- nection.
 The second floor being reached, the possessor of the puzzling cuff buttons stepped out of the elevator to allow its lady passengers the more conven- iently to pass out. This trifiing act of kindness was done with an air of peculiar and personal homage, of which Elinos, as she walked down the long corridor, was acutely conscious.
 All through the evening she tried to read, but instead of the words of the book there arose persistently before her a pair of magnetic eyes, whose gaze exercised strange power over her thoughts.
 Just before bed time, Miss Pitkins, sleepily reading on the opposite side of the parlor was startled into wake fulness, by the sudden dropping of her niece's book, and by Elinos, ex- claiming, in excited tones:
 "Aunt Nan, I've found the man dreamed about last winter. Don't you remember that horrible dream about the diary?
 "That tall man at dinner, who came up in the elevator with us, had the initials J. A. E. on his cuff buttons. Of course he is the man. wonder what crime he has committed. Mur- der probably, and am fated to find it out. Oh, let us go away, auntie, I should die with fright it l met him alone in these dark halls."
 Although she spoke lightly, as if in joke, yet there was really slight tremor of fear in Elinos' voice.
 "My child, how can you be so fool ish? There must be hundreds of peo- pie in New York with the initials J. A. K. hoped you had forgotten all about that silly dream" said her aunt. "You're tired out, dear," continued Miss Pitkins. "Go to bed and have a long nights rest"
 Elinos began to think that perhaps she had been little foolish in speak ing of the sudden thought that had come to her, but the memory of the strangers intense, though unobtrusive, regard of herself, and of the sensations he had caused her was not to be easily dismissed
 During several days following, Il. A. E., either by accident or design, arrived in the dining hall at the same time as Miss Pitkins and Elinos. The latter meanwhile found, with some disgust at the discovery, that her an- ticipations of the dinner hour were not unpleasant.
 On the sixth evening after her first appearance at the ta6te Fhote, having accepted an invitation to a reception, Elinos, exquisitely lovely in decollete white gown, was passing across the hall to the parlor when she encoun- tered her "dream- man," as she had named him. He was advancing quickly along the corridor. Upon seeing her he stopped with marked courtesy to allow her to pass.
 A few minutes after this incident, and while she was still awaiting her aunt in the parlor, box of magnifi- . cent roses was brought to her. On re- moving the wrapper, card bearing only the words "Miss Eveleth" was the only message that she could find And the writing seemed strangely fa- miliar to Elinos. Her first thought was one of quick apprehension "Could he have dared to be guilty of such impertinence?"
 Aloud she said to her aunt, who just then appeared: "Iiow provok- ingly careless! There is no name with these gorgeous roses, and I shall not know whom to thank. I suppose, though, they are from Burton Som CTS, as he has not favored me for at least two whole days. I'll ring for the bell-boy. Perhaps he may throw some light on the mystery"
 The bell-boy being questioned, said that the package had been left by 8 district messenger. Beyond this he, of course, knew nothing.
 The beautiful ballroom of Mrs. Jameson Peters was thronged when Elinos entered it to become the much sought-after belle of the evening. She was about to administer gentle re- buke to Burton Somers for his careless ness in sending the roses anonymously, when, raising her eyes, she saw those of the "dream-man" fixed with 6 strangely triumphant expression on the flowers at her breast.